The performance of high frequency transistors and integrated circuits depends upon the parasitic impedances associated with the device leads or terminals. For example, large amounts of parasitic capacitance associated with the input leads or output leads of amplifiers or other devices substantially degrades the upper cut-off frequency. Similarly, common mode impedance in the reference lead of a high frequency amplifying device provides negative feedback which can also adversely effect high frequency performance.
Numerous attempts have been made in the prior art to reduce such parasitic reactances in order to obtain the maximum performance from high frequency device or integrated circuits. For example, dielectric isolation is used to reduce parasitic capacitance and multiple wire bonds are employed in order to reduce parasitic inductance. Despite these and other techniques, however, the performance of present day high frequency transistors and integrated circuits is less than desired. Accordingly there continues to be a need for improving the performance of high frequency semiconductor devices and integrated circuits.